I’m all for courageous action, in moderation, Peter. But you have an alarming tendency toward heroics. - Ben Aaronovitch

The first rule of Big Brother is that Big Brother is never watching when you want him to.

The police can live with looking corrupt, bullying, or tyrannical, but looking stupid is intolerable. It has a tendency to undermine public faith in the forces of Law and is deleterious to public order.

“Shouldn’t I know about these things?” I said.
“The list of things you need to know about, Peter, is extraordinarily long,” said Nightingale.